Special Collections, Virginia
Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, Va.

Collection Number

Ms1997-003

Title

Lois Davidson Gottlieb Architectural
Collection, 1945-2003

Physical Characteristics

7.2 cu. ft.
11 boxes; 13 oversize folders

Creator

Gottlieb, Lois Davidson

Language

English

Abstract

Papers of Lois Davidson Gottlieb, architectural
designer, author, and lecturer. Includes photographs, writings, storyboards, and
printed material relating to her various professional activities as an author and
lecturer, as well as some drawings from her work as an undergraduate and graduate
student. Also includes files and drawings relating to her work on various
residential design projects dating from 1951 to 2002.

Access Restrictions

Collection is open to research.

Use Restrictions

Permission to publish material from the Lois Davidson Gottlieb Architectural
Collection must be obtained from Special Collections

Preferred Citation

Researchers wishing to cite this collection should include the following
information: Lois Davidson Gottlieb Architectural Collection, Ms97-003, Special
Collections, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg,
Va.

Acquisition Information

The Lois Davidson Gottlieb Architectural Collection was donated to the
International Archive of Women in Architecture by the creator in April 1997.
Additional materials were donated in February and March 2003.

Alternative Form Available

The VT Imagebase contains digital images of the exhibit of Gottlieb's
work at Virginia Tech in 1998 and images of the Mark Gottlieb residence.

Processing Information

The processing of the original donation took place from May to August 1997. The
processing of additional materials and the arrangement and description of the
entire collection took place from February to March 2004. Additional materials were processed in 2010. From 2010-2018, several
additions were delivered by Gottlieb's family.

Lois Davidson Gottlieb (1926-2018) was a residential designer based in San
Francisco, California. She was born on November 13,1926 in San Francisco and
attended Stanford University from 1944 to 1947, where she studied art and
engineering and earned a Bachelor of Arts degree. She served as an apprentice to
famed architect Frank Lloyd Wright from 1948 to 1949 as part of the Taliesin
Fellowship in Spring Green, Wisconsin and Scottsdale, Arizona. And she did her
graduate work at Harvard University's School of Design from 1949 to 1950.

Gottlieb began her career working as a designer for Warren Callister in San
Francisco. Her first solo project was the design of the Val Goeschen house, a
one-room unit with 576 square feet, in Inverness, CA. She went on to design other
residences in Marin County as part of the design team Duncombe-Davidson based in
Sausalito, CA. This partnership spanned the years 1951 to 1956. From 1956 to 2002,
Gottlieb worked as a freelance residential designer on over 100 projects in the Bay
Area and in Riverside, CA, as well as in Washington, Idaho, and Virginia.

Gottlieb served as a lecturer at the College of the Holy Names in Oakland, CA from
1960 to 1964, at Alameda State College in Hayward, CA from 1962 to 1964, and at the
University of California Extension in Riverside, CA from 1966 to 1972. She also gave
guest lectures at various universities around the world, including one at Virginia
Tech in 1996.

Gottlieb's work has been written about in many newspapers and periodicals, including
House Beautiful and the Marin County Independent Journal. She has also published several works
of her own, including Environment and Design in
Housing (a book which was based on her lectures for a course of the same
name and was published in 1966) and A Way of Life: An
Apprenticeship with Frank Lloyd Wright (which was based on the traveling
exhibit of her photographs of Taliesin). Gottlieb's work has also been exhibited in
institutions across the country, including a one-woman architectural exhibit at
Virginia Tech in 1998 and the exhibit of photographs of Taliesin in2000-2001.

From 1995 to 1996, Gottlieb designed and supervised the construction of an 11,000 sq.
ft. home and office complex for her son, Mark Gottlieb, and his family in Fairfax
Station, Virginia. She also produced a video, "Building a Dream: A Family Affair,"
which documents her work on the project.

The collection consists of files and drawings that relate to Gottlieb's work as an
architectural designer of residences in California, Washington, Idaho, and Virginia
spanning the time period from 1951 to 2002. The collection also consists of
writings, photographs, correspondence, and printed material that relate to
Gottlieb's work as an author and lecturer, as well as material relating to her
various publications and exhibits and to the documentary video made about her work
on 'The Gottlieb House' in Fairfax Station, Virginia. The collection also consists
of some work from her days as an undergraduate student at Stanford University and as
a graduate student in architecture at Harvard University.

This subseries primarily consists of correspondence with Milka Bliznakov,
Professor Emerita of the College of Architecture and Urban Studies at
Virginia Tech and founder of the IAWA, as well as some correspondence
relating to courses and other general correspondence.

Box-folder 3-3

Correspondence, 1997.

Box-folder 3-1

Correspondence related to courses, 1974-1975.

Box-folder 3-2

Correspondence to Milka Bliznakov, 1995-2003.

Courses and Lectures,
1959-1975, 1996, undated

Scope and Contents note

This subseries includes outlines, plans, and notes for course
"Environment and Design in Housing" given at Alameda State College and
The College of the Holy Names in Oakland, CA during the early 1960s,
schedules, correspondence, and student comments and writings relating to
various lectures and courses given through the Los Angeles City School
Districts Adult Education program and through University of California
Extension, Riverside during the time period from 1970-1975, and a
videotape of a lecture given at Virginia Tech in 1996.

Box-folder 1-14

Adult Education and Extension programs, Schedules and other
material, 1966-1975.

Box-folder 1-13

Course material, "Environment and Design in
Housing," 1962.

Box-folder 1-17

Madison Wisconsin lecture, 2002, notes and reference
material.

Box-folder 1-12

Notes and reference material, 1959-[1974], undated.

Box-folder 1-15

Student comments and writings, "Environment and Design in
Housing," 1973-1974.

Box-folder 1-16

Video of lecture given by Gottlieb at Virginia
Tech, 1996.

Environment and Design in Housing and
other writings, 1962-1964, 1972.

Scope and Contents note

This subseries includes a typed manuscript of Gottlieb's book, Environment and Design in Housing, which was
based on the courses she gave at the College of the Holy Names and
Alameda State College and which was published by Macmillan Company in
1965, photographs with captions and drawings, which were used as
illustrations in the book, as well as some correspondence from the
publisher and reference material. The subseries also includes a
manuscript of an article written by Gottlieb called "The Balance Between
Diversity and Specialization in American and Indian Education."

Box-folder 2-9

[Drawings, Environment and Design in
Housing, 1964].

Box 8

[Drawings, Environment and Design in
Housing, 1964].

Box-folder 2-2

Manuscript, Environment and Design in
Housing, Part I and II, [1964].

Box-folder 2-3

Manuscript, Environment and Design in
Housing, Part III and IV, [1964].

Box-folder 2-4

Manuscript, Environment and Design in
Housing, Part V, 1964.

Box-folder 2-5

Manuscript, Environment and Design in
Housing, Part VI and VII, [1964].

Box-folder 2-6,7,8

Manuscript, Environment and Design in
Housing, Photographs and captions, [1964].

Box-folder 2-10

Manuscript, "The Balance Between Diversity and Specialization
in American and Indian Education," [1972].

Box 6,7

Photographs, Environment and Design in
Housing, [1964].

Box-folder 2-1

Reference material, 1962-1963.

Exhibits, Publications, and Video Production,
1989-2002.

Scope and Contents note

This subseries includes transcripts of various interviews pertaining to
Gottlieb's experiences during her internship with Frank Lloyd Wright at
Taliesin, various material relating to Gottlieb's photographic exhibit,
"A Way of Life," which documents her time at Taliesin, a copy of the
publication based upon the exhibit, and photographs and other material
relating to an exhibit on Gottlieb, titled "Lois Gottlieb: Continuing
the Legacy of Frank Lloyd Wright," at Virginia Tech in the spring of
1998. The subseries also includes storyboards for the video ("Building a
Dream: A Family Affair") Gottlieb produced about the her work designing
and constructing a house in Fairfax Station, VA for her son and a copy
of the publication "Architectural Drawings of Lois Davidson Gottlieb,
Vol. IX, 1997-2002."

This subseries consists primarily of presentation photographs of various
architectural design projects, as well as a photograph of a coffee table
design and various portraits of Gottlieb.

Box-folder 3-12

Photograph, Coffee Table design, 2002.

Box-folder 3-11

Photographs, Daniels House, Anacortes WA, 1999, 2002.

Box 8

Photographs, Daniels House, [Anacortes, WA], 2002.

Box 8

Photographs, Gottlieb House, Fairfax Station, VA, 1996.

Box-folder 3-10

Photographs, Gottlieb House, Fairfax Station, VA, 1998-2002.

Box-folder 3:9

Photographs, Lake House, WA, 1995.

Box 8

Photographs, various projects, undated

Box-folder 3-13

Portraits, undated

Printed Material,
1953-2002, undated

Scope and Contents note

This subseries includes newspaper and magazine clippings about Gottlieb,
a newsletter with an article by Gottlieb titled "The Balance Between
Diversity and Specialization in American and Indian Education," product
literature, announcements and other printed material related to an
exhibit at Virginia Tech and to screenings of the documentary "Building
a Dream," and other printed material collected by but not about
Gottlieb.

Box-folder 1-5

Clippings about Gottlieb, 1953, undated

Box-folder 1-6

Clippings about Gottlieb, 1960-1969, undated

Box-folder 1-7

Clippings about Gottlieb, 1973-1979, 1998, undated

Box-folder 1-8

Newsletter with article by Gottlieb, 1972.

Scope and Contents note

(See also Subseries D. Environment and Design
in Housing and Other Writings.)

This subseries includes drawings and class exercises created by Gottlieb
during her time as an undergraduate at Stanford University from 1944 to
1947 and as a graduate student in the School of Design at Harvard
University from 1949 to 1951.

This subseries consists of original drawings, including plans,
elevations, sections, and details, of Gottlieb's designs for various
residences. Drawings are arranged chronologically according to
project.

This subseries includes notes, invoices, correspondence, sketches,
printed and other material resulting from Gottlieb's design activities
on various residential projects. Files are arranged chronologically
according to project.

Box-folder 5-9

Connor House, Seattle, WA, 1988.

Box-folder 5-14

De Lada Cabinet, undated

Box-folder 5-5

Daniels Project, Olympia, WA, 1984-1985.

Box-folder 4-7

Erickson Studio, 1976.

Box-folder 5-7

Galante Residence, Carmel, CA, 1986.

Box-folder 4-12

Gottlieb House, 1979.

Box-folder 5-3

Gottlieb House, Olympia, WA, 1981.

Box-folder 4-10

Gulden House, Olympia, WA, 1978.

Box-folder 4-4

Gottlieb House, Riverside, CA, 1964.

Box-folder 4-5

Hansen House, Seattle, WA, 1974, 1978-1979.

Box-folder 5-2

Harrah House, Sedona, AZ, 1980-1981.

Box-folder 5-10

Haskell Projects, 1988-1989.

Box-folder 4-13

Heidar House, 1979.

Box-folder 5-15

Herring House, undated

Box-folder 5-11

Hobe Project, San Mateo, CA, 1989.

Box-folder 5-4

Humphrey House, Olympia, WA, 1981-1982.

Box-folder 5-13

Low Cost House and Remodeling Project
(unfinished), 1996.

Box-folder 5-1

Lynn House, Ketchum, ID, 1980-1981.

Box-folder 5-18

McLean Bible Church, McLean, VA.

Box-folder 5-6

Maimoni Residence, Orinda, CA, 1985.

Box-folder 4-14

Park Residence, Olympia, WA, 1979.

Box-folder 5-16

Schiff House, undated

Box-folder 5-17

Scriven Project, Riverside, CA, undated

Box-folder 4-3

Sister Emelda Maria, Kitchen and other plans, The College of
the Holy Names, Oakland, CA, 1964.